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•Aregbesola condemns herdsmen killings
Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, yesterday said President Muhammadu Buhari has put measures in place to ensure threats to peace and security, including Boko Haram insurgency, militancy, conflicts between herdsmen and host communities, as well as kidnapping, are promptly dealt with.
The minister disclosed this at a two-day national conference on peace and national security, entitled: “Culture, peace and national security: The role of traditional rulers”, held at Theophilus Ogunlesi Hall, Ibadan, Oyo State capital.
The conference was organised by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Speakers at the programme enjoined the National Assembly to make legislation that would give constitutional roles to monarchs, especially in alternative dispute resolution.
Mohammed said: “President Buhari has reiterated that entrenching national security is a top priority of his administration. This is because the socio-economic initiatives of his government cannot be successfully implemented without adequate security.
Mohammed, however, noted that the achievement of sustainable peace and security in Nigeria is the responsibility of all stakeholders, and not just that of security agencies, adding that civil society organisations, religious bodies, traditional rulers who are custodian of culture and traditions, the media and everyone else have important roles to play in the quest for peace and security of the country.
He reiterated the resolve of the administration to promote enduring peace and security in the country and solicited “the cooperation of all in the quest to make Nigeria a peaceful and secured place for Nigerians and foreigners to invest.”
Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Dr. Gbade Ojo, said Nigeria, no doubt, needs national security, adding that it is time traditional rulers complemented government efforts to achieve peace and security.
Meanwhile, Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has condemned killings by herdsmen in various parts of the country. He described the development as veritable threat to national security and called on security agencies to bring an end to the menace.
He disclosed this in his address at a conference organised to honour a professor of African History at the University of Texas, Houstin, United States of America (USA), Prof. Toyin Falola, on his 65th birthday.
Aregbesola said killings by herdsmen “is condemnable and it is, hereby, condemned very strongly.”
